There are known conventional analyzers capable of assaying and reassaying a sample by transporting a sample (such as whole blood, serum, plasma, urine and the like) to the measuring units, such as biochemical analyzers, immunoanalyzers, blood cell analyzers, urine analyzers and the like. In such analyzers, the analysis result of a first assay of a sample (hereinafter referred to as a first examination) is compared to a normal value to determine whether the analysis result is abnormal, and remeasurement of the sample is performed when the analysis result is determined to be abnormal.
A re-examination of a sample is necessary when the analysis result of a predetermined measurement item is outside the normal range, or when an analysis result can not be accurately obtained due to an apparatus malfunction, sample deterioration or the like. However, when the sample analysis result is outside the normal range, it is not possible to determine from the analysis result whether the cause is an apparatus malfunction or some other reason. It is therefore desirable to re-measure the sample using a different measuring unit than the measuring unit that performed the first examination.
On the other hand, there are some cases which must have priority for rapidly obtaining the results of a remeasurement. To obtain the result by re-examination at an early stage, it is desirable to transport the sample to the measuring unit nearest the sample at the moment the first examination analysis result has been obtained. Since the sample analysis result can be obtained within a few minutes after the sample has been aspirated, there is an excellent possibility that the measuring unit that performed the first examination is the measuring unit nearest the sample. Therefore, whether the re-examination of the sample should be performed by the measuring unit that performed the first examination or performed by another measuring unit must be flexibly determined according to the situation.
US Patent Publication No. 2008/0310999 discloses an automatic analysis system provided with a plurality of analysis modules, and a transport device for transporting a sample to the plurality of analysis modules. In the automatic analysis system disclosed in US Patent Publication No. 2008/0310999, the analysis module that performs the reanalysis of a sample can be specified from among three types: “completely different module,” “different module priority,” and “processing power priority.”
When “completely different module” is specified, remeasurement is performed by a different analysis module than the analysis module that performed the first examination. When “different module” is specified, a different analysis module is a priority, however, the analysis module that performed the initial measurement may also perform the remeasurement when other analysis modules are under high load due to ongoing analyses. When “processing power priority” is specified, remeasurement is performed by the analysis module that has the greatest processing power.